Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster learned the hard way about protecting your rights to your creations. © Cartoon Network.

The gigantic, rapacious corporation taking advantage of the struggling artist eager to see his creations come to life is a long-lived, durable cliché — but one with roots planted firmly in reality. The sad story of Superman’s cast aside creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster has given pause to contract signers (and work to intellectual property lawyers) ever since.

Jerry and Joe would no doubt be envious of their 21st century independent animator descendants, who live and work in more enlightened times. Nowadays, profit participation and ancillary revenue shares are decided before production even begins, making it highly unlikely a show’s creator will be shown the door over monetary issues. At the same time, the people paying the bills have come to realize that truly creative shows, the ones that attract audiences, come from producers who are respected and given the creative freedom to do their best work.

One thing hasn’t changed, though: by and large, the people — or corporation — paying the bills winds up owning the property.

“I’m trying to think of a good analogy... it’s my baseball but it’s their ball field. They’re letting me play on it, so I’m doing my best to give them a good game.” Butch Hartman, creator of Nickelodeon’s Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom feels the trade-off of ownership for creative freedom is worth it. “When I pitched Phantom to them, I didn’t have the money to make the show. They did, and they gave it to me and they had a venue for me to show it on. I think it’s only fair that they get their piece of it — and I have a small piece of it as well; they definitely have been very generous with the piece I get.”

Butch Hartman gave up ownership on Fairly OddParents for creative freedom. © Nickelodeon.

One might think a writer/director toiling in the bowels of a gigantic corporation like Viacom would feel like David swallowed up by Goliath, but Hartman has nothing but praise for Nickelodeon. “I’ve worked everywhere in this industry and I get more of a sense of family from this place than anywhere else. Because the show’s doing really well they trust me; there are parameters I’ve got to stick to, but they pretty much let me do whatever I want.”

According to Hartman, head-butting between himself and Nickelodeon over the show’s creative direction is all but non-existent. “I’m a very accommodating guy — I’m not always right. If I have an idea I think is fantastic, and the network goes, ‘I like the idea but what if you did this —?’, I’m like ‘that’s not a bad idea.’ Occasionally we’ll push the envelope a little bit — they asked us to keep it down to four Uranus jokes in an OddParents episode — but I’m really not an edgy person to begin with.”

Sometimes a little distance helps in a relationship too. Tom Warburton, creator of Codename: Kids Next Door, Cartoon Network’s number-one show last year, said ‘thanks, but no thanks’ when the network asked him to base the series at their Burbank studios where he had produced the pilot. He opted instead to continue working out of Curious Pictures in New York, where he spent the intervening year directing Mo Willems’ Sheep in the Big City.